His meals, they are a-changing.

It's nice to be able to make meals at home.  On days when i am at work, Sweetie usually picks up something from the buffet at the hotel.

On days when i'm home, i cook dinner for noon, and whether i cooked or he picked something up, he has sandwiches or soup or something light for supper.

He used to ask for nothing but plain, country cooking.  Veggies cooked until you couldn't recognize them, everything liberally covered in butter or bacon grease or gravy, lots of rice or mashed potatoes.

As Brother-in-Law, The Mouth, always said, the potatoes or rice were the socially acceptable excuse you needed with the meal because it's considered unacceptable to drink the gravy or eat the butter by itself.

He and Sweetie grew up skinny as sticks and able to eat monstrous mountains of such food and never gain an ounce.

They were over 6 feet tall and each weighed about 140lbs. when they graduated high school.  It was normal for them to split an entire loaf of bread and gallon of milk to accompany the rest of the meal if they had spent the day in the hay fields of a local farm, or doing similar outdoor work.

The years have caught up, though.  No longer do the "boys" shake off the calories.  Sweetie has decided it's time to take his diet in hand, and has asked that all soups, stews, or items that can be served over rice be served with barley or 100% whole wheat bread instead.

He wants cauliflower instead of potatoes.

He is monitoring what he eats, asking for veggies more lightly cooked, wanting them with just a touch of butter.

A lot of his dinners now are a lean protein, plus veggies, and maybe a slice of bread.  It's starting to have some effect.

The meals are taking a bit less time to prepare, but they are more nutritious.

Don't get me wrong, he still sometimes wants a dab of bacon grease in some things.  But now it's a dab, not a couple of tablespoons.

It's nice being able to prepare meals for him and know i'm less likely to kill him with what i fix.

And while i do like to make nice meals, including roast chicken, i do not have the time to do this:

1950's housewives supposedly had time to do this.

Today is

Be a Dork Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays, which encourages you to wear goofy clothes and fall off a swingset today and be proud of Dorkiness

Cigarette Warning Day -- anniversary of the 1968 law passed in the US that requires health warnings on cigarette packaging

Fairfest -- Hastings, NE (county fair fun plus world class stage entertainment; through the 20th)

Feast of Rowana/Rauni -- Druid/Cornish/Flemish (rowan tree goddess; date approximate)

Festival of Castor and Pullox -- Ancient Roman Calendar every five years (celebrated with a cavalry and chariot procession)

Festival of Santa Rosalia -- Palermo; Sicily (remembrance of the Patron saint of the city on the date, in 1624, when she stopped the plague)

Friendship Festival -- Lathrop, Missouri, US (this year's theme is "Born Free!"; through Saturday)

Gorestnici -- Bulgaria (fire festival of 3 days duration, honoring the ancient belief that these are the 3 hottest days of the year)

Gospel Day -- Kiribati

Gummi Worm Day

Hakata Gion Yamagasa -- Kushida Shrine, Fukuoka, Japan (festival of floats, dates back to the 13th century, includes dousing teams carrying one ton floats with water as they race!)

Hundadagar -- Icelandic tradition, the "dog days" of summer begin, through Aug. 23

Ides of July -- Ancient Roman Calendar

I Love Horses Day -- all over the web with no specific reason given, but do you need a reason to celebrate horses?

National Baby Food Festival -- Fremont, MI, US (in the hometown of Gerber Products, adults have a baby food eating contest and tots have crawling races, among other fun things; through Saturday)

National Tapioca Pudding Day

No-Hitter Day -- George Bradley of the St. Louis Brown Stockings pitched the first officially recognized no-hitter in MLB against the Hartford Dark Blues on this date in 1876

Petal-Hopping for Beginners Day -- Fairy Calendar

Pet Fire Safety Day -- make a plan to get yourself and your pets safely out of your home in case of a fire!

Respect Canada Day -- because Canada deserves it!

Shab-e-Qadar -- Bangladesh (Night of Destiny)

Sinclair Lewis Days -- Sauk Centre, MN, US (a grand celebration in Lewis's hometown; through the 19th)

St. Bonaventure's Day (Patron against intestinal problems; of Bagnoregio, Italy; Cochiti Indian Pueblo; St. Bonaventure University, New York)

St. Swithun's Day -- Saint Swithun's Society Annual Celebration in Toronto, ON, Canada; the weather prognostication associated with this saint says if it rains today, it will rain for the next 40 days (Patron against drought; of Stavenger, England; Winchester, England)

St. Vladimir of Kiev's Day (Patron of converts, parents of large families, reformed and penitant murderers; Russia; Ukranian Catholic Diocese of Stamford, Connecticut; Winnipeg, Manitoba)

Sultan's Birthday -- Brunei Darussalam



Birthdays Today

Tanner Maguire, 1998
Emily Roeske, 1991
Brian Austin Green, 1973
Beth Stern, 1972
Adam Savage, 1967
Irene Jacob, 1966
Forest Whitaker, 1961
Lolita Davidovich, 1961
Kim Alexis, 1960
William Aames, 1960
Terry O’Quinn, 1952
Jesse Ventura, 1951
Arianna Huffington, 1950
Richard Russo, 1949
Linda Ronstadt, 1946
Jan-Michael Vincent, 1944
Alex George Karras, 1935
Ken Kercheval, 1935
Julian Bream, 1933
Clive Cussler, 1931
Jacques Derrida, 1930
Mother Fraqnces Xavier Cabrini, 1850
Thomas Bulfinch, 1796
Clement Clarke Moore, 1779
Rembrandt Van Rijn, 1606


Debuting/Premiering Today:

MSNBC(Network), 1996
"One Life to Live"(TV), 1968


Today in History

Christian soldiers take the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the final assault of a difficult siege, 1099
John Ball, a leader in the Peasants' Revolt, is hanged, 1381
Alexei Chirikov sights land and sends men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska, 1741
The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign, 1799
Zebulon Pike begins an expedition from Fort Belle Fountaine to explore the west, 1806
Napoléon Bonaparte surrenders aboard HMS Bellerophon, 1815
A fire destroys the ancient Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, 1823
Georgia becomes the last of the former Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union, 1870
The stratovolcano Mount Bandai, Japan, erupts killing approximately 500 people, 1888
In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt incorporate Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing), 1916
Eighteen Nobel laureates sign the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, later co-signed by thirty-four others, 1955
AOL Time Warner disbands Netscape Communications Corporation; the Mozilla Foundation is established on the same day, 2003
Entire villages are burned to the ground and 40,000 people flee their homes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 2010